LETTER: Supreme Court trend is ominous

By a series of 5-4 decisions, the U.S. Supreme Court is tipping the scales in favor of Wall Street and corporate tycoons. At the same time, right-wing lawmakers are trying to weaken workers' political strength by taking away their collective bargaining rights. This ominous trend demonstrates why who sits on the nation's highest court matters to working class Americans.

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The most important of those decisions, Citizens United v. FEC, held that corporations can spend unlimited funds on advertisements supporting or opposing candidates for federal office - as long as those ads are made independently of the campaigns they support.

President Obama decried the Citizens United ruling as "a major victory for big oil, Wall Street banks, health insurance companies and other powerful interests that marshal their power every day in Washington and drown out the voices of everyday Americans."

The Supreme Court is powerful - its judges are appointed for life. The court will become friendlier to middle class Americans only if there's a vacancy filled by a re-elected President Obama.